A Punjabi Murdered In A Hate Crime In The US

An unidentified person killed Jagjeet Singh for not selling cigarettes in a suspected hate crime.

Cab Driver Jagjeet Singh

Washington (D.C.): Jagjeet Singh, a 32-year-old, was stabbed to death outside a grocery store at Modesto City in California on Friday in a suspected hate crime.

The victim, a resident of Nadala Village in Punjab and who came to America a year ago, was killed by an unidentified person over not selling cigarettes.

A man entered the grocery store where Jagjeet was working at around 11:30 pm and asked him for a pack of cigarettes, but couldn’t provide a mandated identity card. Upon refusing to sell cigarettes without the card, the man reportedly accused Jagjeet, spouted racist abuses, and warned him of dire consequences. The customer left the store in fury. All of this is reportedly captured and recorded by the store’s CC camera.

About half-an-hour after the incident, Jagjeet went outside the store, where the customer attacked him with a sharp-edged weapon. He reportedly died on his way to a local hospital.

Wife, Kuljeet Kaur, and two sons – Ishmeet Singh, 9, and Dilpreet Singh, 7, survive Jagjeet. His family in the US and back in India were shocked by his death.